so ive been messing around with LEO satellite work for the past few months and finally got my doppler correction working reasonably well with gpredict tied into my ft-817. mostly been trying FO-29 but its schedule has been all over the place and half the time i tune in during what should be a pass and get nothing. heard AO-73 has a linear transponder too but i cant find consistent info on whether its in amateur mode or not on any given pass.

my current setup is just a pair of handheld yagis, az/el is all manual which honestly isnt as bad as i thought it would be once you get used to anticipating the movement. the doppler on the downlink is the part that still trips me up — im running split mode and trying to correct on the fly but im definitely missing contacts because im slow on the VFO. anyone have a workflow for this that actually works without a full automated station

FO-29 has been pretty unreliable for a while now, the transponder only gets turned on periodically by JARL so unless you're checking their announcements you might just be hitting it during a dead window. AO-73 (funcube-1) is more predictable but the linear transponder mode is also scheduled, it defaults to its beacon/telemetry mode a lot of the time. AMSAT-UK posts the schedule but it still feels like a guessing game sometimes.

for the doppler workflow without automation — what works for me is to basically set the uplink and forget it mostly, and just chase the downlink. your own signal coming back will drift but as long as you keep tuning to hear yourself you're roughly in the right place. the trick is not trying to correct both VFOs simultaneously, pick one to chase and stick with it. took me an embarassingly long time to figure that out. also gpredict can drive a rig directly if you set up hamlib, even without motors on the antenna that half of the automation is huge.

yeah the FO-29 thing is frustrating, i gave up on it for a while. AO-73 worked great for me last winter but i havent tried recently. honestly SO-50 spoiled me because FM is just so much easier to work even if its less interesting technically. i keep meaning to get more serious about the linear birds but manual az/el with doppler correction at the same time is a lot to juggle. what yagis are you using, homebuilt or Arrow or what